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Describing the Trinity

The Trinity -One & Three

The Trinity -One & Three

by Becky Zuniga - Number of replies: 2

The word Trinity is used to describe one God - revealed through the entirety of scripture as three persons-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-three in one. Fully God, Fully Son, Fully Spirit - interacting in relationship within one God, and in relationship with humans in a way that leaves little room for full understanding outside of faith. God the creator, the Son begotten and the Spirit given.

One God - who always was, always is and will always be. Not created, but the Creator. Within one God, a Father, a Son and a Holy Spirit. A Father, who created everything. A son who became human, lived a perfect life, was crucified and rose again. A Holy Spirit who is gifted to those who believe-residing in them to guide through their conscious. All three present in one God-always. 

We desire to put human understanding to what is not human. To pull from scripture certain verses that help us to describe what is seemingly undescribable. To attach relationship to and therefor give meaning, but in order to hold true to worship of One God - holding no idols - it is best to not try to put into complete understanding what is not meant to be understood. It is ok to not having some "it is like" statement to try to explain what we know to be true of the Trinity-the GodHead - three in one. 

To my best understanding - God is one and three. There exists a relationship-revealing Father, Son and Spirit - but this relationship does not create three persons. Where the Father is, there is also the Son and the Spirit. They are one. When we worship, we worship God the Father, Son and Spirit. God is not an actor - playing three different roles - he mnipotent, omnipresent, eternal. "One in work and One in purpose." 

In reply to Becky Zuniga

Re: The Trinity -One & Three

by Ken Schenck -
I have always said that the moment I caught a glimpse of understanding the Trinity, my head would no doubt explode. I will say that the orthodox understanding is that they actually are three distinct persons. But they are one substance. They are only one God and they have all the same divine attributes. But they do seem to focus more on certain roles between them. All the analogies seem to quickly break down.
In reply to Becky Zuniga

Re: The Trinity -One & Three

by Rachel Vinson -
Very good description! I like how you pointed out that it “leaves little room for full understanding outside of faith.” It truly is beyond our human capacity to understand, which makes it difficult to clearly explain to someone who does not regularly spend time in Scripture, and even more difficult to explain to a non-believer. It is interesting how, when we as humans try to more fully describe the Trinity in our human understanding and terms, we create idolatry by causing worship of one of the three persons but not all three in God, as exemplified by the heresies of adoptionism, modalism, and Arianism described in the text.